Erin Baker: What can carmakers do for man's best friend?

It was touching, informative and hilarious in equal measures. Why it was relegated to BBC2 is anyone’s guess – we are a nation of dog lovers and growing more so by the day.

Car makers, always wise to an opportunity to accessorise, are increasingly on the doggy bandwagon, with pet packs offered to SUV and estate owners for their precious pooches.

Nissan introduced a dog pack for its X-Trail last year, called The Paw Pack. The £599 option gives you an X-Trail badged, non-spill dog bowl, a guard separator for the boot, a ramp for smaller or more elderly dogs to walk up, machine-washable dog bed, a tidy pan for chews and waste, and boot liner to keep the worst of the mud off the carpet.

Land Rover announced its own smart dog pack last week, to coincide with China’s year of the Dog. A rubber mat or liner tray fills the boot, offering waterproof protection as well as a barrier between carpet and fur. The adjustable air suspension should help less able dogs climb aboard. There’s a full-height partition between boot and seats, but the best bit is the canine collection developed by Land Rover with its faithful sartorial partner, Barbour. The range features “the unique Barbour for Land Rover tartan and includes everything required for a country walk”. There’s a strong, durable leather dog lead, leather-lined collar, harness and co-ordinating water-resistant, quilted wax jacket, which I can’t work out whether it’s for the human or the dog. In fact, a trawl through the Land Rover online shop shows a must-have array of stuff for the smart four-legged company, including a Land Rover-green ceramic dog bowl with the HUE 166 numberplate on it, and, most impressively, a tartan Barbour dog bandana.

I had dinner with Bentley the other night and they’re keen to get in on the act with their Bentayga – given they have already done a fly-fishing and a bird-of-prey pack, they seem to have missed step one in the UK – always start with dogs.